


Proper Service

by SapphoIsBurning



Category: Imperial Radch Series - Ann Leckie
Genre: Asexual Character, Boot Worship, F/F, Masturbation, Multi, Other, POV First Person, R2SID Exchange, Service Kink, Tea
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-17
Updated: 2017-04-17
Packaged: 2018-10-20 00:30:28
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,488
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10651281
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SapphoIsBurning/pseuds/SapphoIsBurning
Summary: Ship wants Seivarden. Seivarden wants to serve Breq. Breq wants to put her feet up. Maybe everyone can get what they want this time.





	Proper Service

**Author's Note:**

  * For [grimark](https://archiveofourown.org/users/grimark/gifts).



> Written for the Republic of Two Systems Independence Day Exchange 2017.

“Seivarden wants to serve,” Ship told me with some impatience. 

Not born for service, that one, I thought.

“She serves all the time,” I said. “She serves the Republic of the Two Systems and this crew admirably, I don’t know—”

“She wants to serve YOU.” Ship cut me off and I am sure would have huffed a sigh if an artificial intelligence had breath. Instead what came forth to my implant was Seivarden, images of her: serving tea, pulling out my chair for me, accepting an order, looking rapt. “You could benefit as well.”

“I don’t have time for this,” I said. Even my good leg was starting to ache after a very long day.

“I have annotated biometric readouts that you might find very interesting, Fleet Captain. Increased heart rate and respiration. And the  _ blood flow _ !”

“I will take it under consideration, and please speak with Medic about the blood flow issue, you know that circulatory disorders are beyond my areas of expertise.” But before I could finish the sentence, I knew that Mercy of Kalr had tuned out.

***

So much to do, so many new committees sprung up in the wake of creating a new government and a new significant species or two. I went down to Athoek station by shuttle soon after the blood flow talk with Ship and didn’t come back for a week.

There were many notifications and messages that required my attention but an urgent request for a private meeting from the good Lieutenant Seivarden was my first priority. Nothing was on fire, no one was injured beyond repair, but I didn’t want to make any decisions for a hundred minutes or more.

She was waiting outside my quarters when I arrived, carrying a satchel. She coughed and gestured toward the door. We entered.

“How is Lieutenant Tisarwat doing on her extended deployment?” she asked tactfully.

“I don’t think she’s getting very much sleep,” I said, raising an eyebrow at her in return. “Her nights are rather occupied.”

Seivarden laughed. I leaned against a console and folded my arms. She went to my tea flask without asking. She took a box from her satchel—tea, something I didn’t recognize. I had to admit it was a pleasure to watch her measure it out, add the water, set it to steep. Something about the routine seemed to ease her tense posture, and maybe there was something to those biometrics Ship was so excited about after all.

“Do you like serving me tea, Lieutenant?” I asked.

She stiffened a bit but still poured a delicate stream from the flask into the cup, flicking her wrist at the end to create a circular ripple and splash. That was a new trick.

“I think it has its benefits for both of us,” Seivarden said. She handed me a cup, poured her own, sat down. I admired the straightness of her spine as she sipped, but I wished she would spare me the lingering gaze.

“Hmm.” The tea was good: fruity but not overly perfumed, with some unfamiliar notes of acid.

“I was wondering if there was something else I could do for you,” Seivarden said, setting down her cup. 

“Anything, or did you have something in mind?”

“I’ve been studying the ways one might serve a captain and crew mate...Ship has been most helpful with the research.” She looked down at the table. “Bootblacking,” she said firmly. She took out some items from the satchel, putting them on the table before her. Some kind of round tin, a brush, a cloth. “I did some shopping last time I was downwell.”

I frowned. “Ship, this is your doing.” I pushed off the wall and walked the edge of my quarters.

“I just want to polish your boots, Breq,” Seivarden said.

“Don’t ignore me, Ship, I know you’re listening.”

Seivarden rolled her eyes then spoke: “This is ship: your boots are filthy. Sit.” She sighed. “And you’re favoring your left hip. Pacing isn’t going to help.”

I gave up arguing with the bootblacking conspiracy and sat heavily down in a padded chair. “Like this?”

“Feet up, here,” Seivarden said, coming down to kneel next to me.

I propped my feet up on the stool that my Amaats had acquired for me once my leg had finished growing back.

Seivarden brushed the dust from my boots and looked at me with uncharacteristic trepidation. “At least I got you to sit down for once.”

I sighed. The chair was comfortable and the company was good: what was I complaining about? “Show me what you want to do to my boots,” I said.

Her vital signs were indicating an elevated heart rate and...blood flow. Oh. That kind of blood flow, then. I laughed at myself for telling Ship she needed to go to Medic to have it taken care of...Medic would be very surprised by that request, I’m sure.

Seivarden steeled herself and bent over me, licking the toe of my boot with a wet flat tongue.

“Oh,” I said.

I was overcome by surprise at the intimacy of the gesture and the relief it brought me. What weight was lifted from me by accepting her service, her gift to me?

She licked the boot and followed the swipes of her tongue with soft circles of a cloth damp with a waxy polish.

Ship spoke to me: “You’re welcome.”

My body felt warm and satisfied to see Seivarden so intent on a task so small, so wet, and so close. She worked faster now, polishing with such fervor it rocked my body. 

“You can touch her hair,” Ship told me. I reached out with a finger and stroked the side of her head. She looked up at me, tongue on my boot, eyes wide and pupils dilated. The gaze made my skin itch like it was new.

“Doesn’t she make a pretty picture?” Ship asked me. “Propriety comes in many forms.”

“Ship likes you like this,” I said out loud. “Ship thinks this is  _ very _ proper.”

Seivarden smiled down at my boots. “And what do you think?”

“My feet have never gotten so much attention,” I said.

She worked the cloth back and forth from the ankle to the shin, polishing the upper to as much of a gloss as the toe had been. She moved on to the other, licking, polishing, the intensity of her focus almost too much for me to take in.

“Tell her she’s good,” Ship said to me. “She needs to hear it.”

“This is good,” I said. “I could get used to this.” It was the truth.

A small moan escaped her mouth.

I went on. “Have you been practicing?”

“Only on my own boots,” she said. I noticed now that they were glossier than I’d ever seen them.

“This is just for us, then,” I said. “The three of us.”

“Yes,” Ship said to me. 

“This is ship: yes,” I said. 

Time flew by with the flurry of polishing and touch from Seivarden, and soon my boots were uniformly mirror-shined.

“That's it,” she said, looking up at me beatifically, still kneeling. There was a slight wet spot spreading on her trousers.

“Fleet Captain, Seivarden is experience significant blood flow,” Ship said to me. “She needs your permission to deal with it.”

I began to protest but Ship went on. “To deal with it  _ now _ . Here. Can she please deal with it?”

I read between the lines. “Touch yourself,” I said. “Ship wants you to. Ship wants to see it.”

“Do  _ you _ want to see it?” Seivarden asked, thumbing open a few buttons.

“It’s not anything I haven’t seen before,” I said. “You were rather fond of the habit when you served me in my...former capacity. Why should I be bothered by it now?”

Ship was silent in my implants but Seivarden’s face softened, a quizzical smile spreading as she reached into her trousers to get a hand on herself, stroking her own cock with the vigor she had been applying to my boots. I knew Ship was speaking to her directly now. 

“Don’t leave anything for my Amaats to have to clean up,” I said.

“I wouldn’t dream of it,” Seivarden said, voice tight.

I wasn’t lying that an officer giving themselves pleasure was a familiar sight, but still the intimacy of this was new. Something about it was intensely satisfying, like a cup of tea served beautifully at exactly the right moment, and yet, I felt like I might burn my tongue if I spoke the wrong word.

“Your heart is racing too, Fleet Captain,” Ship said to me. “Just say thank you.”

Seivarden’s cock was out of her trousers and she was coming over her fingers, a ragged breath escaping her lips. She hung her head and grinned, breathing loose and heavy. 

“We thank you for your service, Lieutenant,” I said, straightening my jacket. “You’re free to go.”

**Author's Note:**

> A threesome between an asexual cyborg, a spaceship AI, and a hapless lieutenant with a badly hidden service fetish? First of all, through kink all things are possible, so jot that one down. ;)


End file.
